1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for mixing liquids and more particularly, to a system for mixing and aerating first and a second liquid which may appear in the form of a concentrate and a diluent. The invention also relates to a liquid pump having a pumping chamber defined by a pumping wall in combination with a pumping rotor having a plurality of pumping elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art has known many mixing systems for dispensing single or plural liquids. Among the prior art are systems for mixing a first liquid diluent with a second liquid concentrate in accordance with a predetermined relationship. One important application for such a device is the mixing of food products including fruit and vegetable juices and the like. In many cases, a juice concentrate such as orange or pineapple juice is frozen for later use. The thawed concentrate is then mixed with a diluent, usually water, in a predetermined volumetric relation, in order to produce an end product equivalent in consistency and flavor to the original fruit or vegetable juice.
When dealing with food products, various design problems are encountered in order to make the device readily accessible for cleaning after each use. One particular problem area is the pump used for pumping the concentrate. The pump must be designed to facilitate cleaning of the internal portion of the pump. As a consequence of these requirements, peristaltic pumps were popular in the prior art for pumping a liquid food concentrate. These pumps performed well, and included the advantages of simplicity and low cost. However, the peristaltic pumps had the distinct disadvantage of their relatively large physical size and limited variation in flow rate. Consequently the flow rate of the diluent had to be controlled in order to obtain different concentrate-diluent ratios for various fruit and vegetable products. A further disadvantage of the peristaltic pump was the pulsating liquid flow, the noisy operation and limited life of the deformable tubing in the peristaltic pump.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a liquid pump which overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art peristaltic pump and comprises a pumping rotor moveably mounted within a pumping chamber defined by a pumping wall with the pumping rotor cooperating with the pumping wall for pumping the liquid upon rotation of the pumping rotor.
Another object of this invention is to provide a liquid pump comprising a motor housing member secured to the motor and having a first mounting portion and a rotor housing member having a second mounting portion with locking means detachably locking the rotor housing member to the motor housing member.
Another object of this invention is to provide a liquid pump having a rotor housing member including a pumping chamber portion and a chamber sealing portion removably mounted to the pumping chamber portion to enable access to a pumping rotor for cleaning the internal portions of the liquid dispenser pump.
Another object of this invention is to provide a liquid pump comprising a motor, a motor housing member and a rotor housing member wherein said motor is removably mounted within the system and wherein the motor housing member is mounted to the rotor housing member in a snap-locking engagement for enabling rapid disassembly for cleaning.
A further disadvantage of the prior art application of the peristaltic pump to liquid systems was the limited speed range of the peristaltic pump. In many cases, it is desirable to have a plurality of concentrate diluent volumetric ratios in order to accommodate different products having different concentrate-diluent relationships. The peristaltic pump and the prior art power supplies were incapable of providing the speed range required for accommodating various concentrate-diluent ratios. As a result, the flow rate of the liquid diluent would have to be controlled in order to adapt to various ratios of concentrate to diluent.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a circuit for controlling a device connected to flow means for controlling the flow of a first liquid and a pump for pumping a second liquid for enabling simultaneous flow of the first and second liquids in accordance with a predetermined volumetric relationship of the first and second liquids.
Another object of this invention is to provide a circuit for controlling a pump including a generator for generating a plurality of electrical pumping signal values and means for selecting one of the plurality of electrical pumping signal values for connection to the pump for providing a plurality of selectable pumping speeds.
Another object of this invention is to provide a circuit for controlling a device having flow means for controlling the flow of a first liquid and a pump for pumping a second liquid with the pumping speed of the pump established in accordance with the flow rate of the first liquid and in accordance with a preselected volumetric relationship of the first and second liquids.
Another object of this invention is to provide a circuit for controlling a device having flow means for controlling the flow of a first liquid and a pump for pumping a second liquid including a pulse width modulation generator for generating a plurality of preselected electrical pumping signals in accordance with the value of modulation of the pulse width modulation generator.
Some of the prior art devices incorporated aerator devices for aerating the flowing liquid. In general, these aerator devices were complex and incapable of rapid and accurate variation in magnitude of aeration in accordance with a preferred standard. A further disadvantage of the prior art aerator devices was the difficulty of cleaning the aerator devices.
Therefore, it is a further object of this invention to provide an aerator for aerating a flowing liquid having a first member with a fluid passage including a venturi orifice in cooperation with a second member being moveable relative to the first member and having a plurality of metering orifices communicable with the venturi orifice upon selected relative movement between the first and second members for metering the air flow to the venturi to control the aeration of the flowing liquid.
Another object of this invention is to provide an aerator for aerating a flowing liquid comprising a first and a second modular member adapted for relative rotation therebetween, the first member being adapted for receiving the flowing liquid and the second member being adapted for dispensing the flowing liquid.
Another object of this invention is to provide an aerator for aerating a flowing liquid having a plurality of aeration value levels upon selected rotation of the first member relative to a second member and detent means established between the first and second member for enabling orientation of the selected aeration values for the dispenser.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method of mixing a liquid concentrate and a liquid diluent in accordance with a predetermined volumetric relation which, in its preferred form incorporates the aforementioned apparati.
A further object of this invention is to provide a mixing system for mixing a first liquid diluent with a second liquid concentrate wherein the first and second liquids are mixed in a preferred volumetric relationship and aerated and wherein the system is made up of modular components, each being readily removable from one another enabling the system to be readily cleaned and maintained.
A further object of this invention is to provide a system incorporating molded plastic parts adapted for connection to one another by compression and O-ring gaskets.
Further objects of this invention will become obvious from the summary of the invention and the description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the claims and the appended drawings.